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Day 3 Aviemore biking tour to

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Started today with better than expected weather. And the rainy weather we had, was short and came with a whisky shots from locals. (More on those nice Scots later).

George woke up at 3:15 because the light was shining in the window and we both wondered,when does the sun rise (maybe it never really sets in Scotland on the summer solstice). I fought through the sunlight and managed to sleep again till 830. We had more eggs and local salmon/ lox for breakfast. After bfast we wandered through town and started day three of the cycling tour around 10:30.

At this point in our trip, I needed to pee and ventured off to look at the bridge and find a nice quiet spot while George and Tim (our riding companion) went ahead.

I turned on the turbo to catch up. But Tim was waiting for me in the road and said we were taking a pit stop for the rain. Wherein the 90 year old Scottish local not only gave us shelter from the rain, but also whisky.

The rain subsided and we ventured towards kingussie for lunch stopping at the ruthven barracks and pics of more highland coos.

Last fun of the evening was fish and chips and cupcakes from the girls. Great day today! Cheers mate.

Day 2 biking Aviemore

June 20, 2023June 20, 2023 / rugreen4u4632 / 1 Comment

Today we almost slept through bfast. The sun goes to sleep late and gets up early. You have to get it dark to sleep and if you get it dark you might just continue sleeping. We made it to bfast with 2 minutes to spare, then packed up our gear for a great bike ride. We are in the Cairngorm national park. All these pictures following are from around Aviemore.

At this point we were hungry and thirsty and the girls saved us a spot while we got showered. I had my first sticky toffee pudding.

Mostly a travel day, but we did get a great first rainy ride in. The train ride was about 3 hours through the Scottish Highlands. We arrived a we bit early, but grabbed a pint got some lunch and went for a beautiful ride.

After check in we got outfitted for a ride and took one. Look at this beautiful scenery (in the rain no less).

Aviemore trek bicycle tour

Featured / rugreen4u4632 / 1 Comment

Castle and Arthur’s seat

June 19, 2023June 19, 2023 / rugreen4u4632 / 1 Comment

Today we got up early and went for a walk before meeting the girls at the castle. There were crazy people racing the 7 hills of Edinburgh.

Walking through Edinburgh before the girls woke up.

We left the castle looking for fish and chips, but got turned down for a seat but our replacement Sammy lunch was fantastic. I got a smoked trout sandwich. Yummy! George ate haggis and black pudding. Ewe but he gets points for trying it.

Next we hiked Arthur’s seat which is right outside Edinburgh. It was great and I even got a 15 minute power nap at the top.

At this point we were very thirsty, but first stop was procuring chocolate cake. After cake we grabbed a beer at this cleverly named pub. (Can you see the noose?)

The fourth attempt at fish and chips today was successful.

Our last stop was at a costumed tour about the buried city called Mary kings close. A close is just a tiny alley street. Several got buried in around 1600 to build the royal exchange. Now, they give tours and you leave glad that you weren’t alive in the 1500s. Plagues and more different plagues which puts COVID into perspective. You can’t take pictures so here’s a link.

https://www.realmarykingsclose.com/

Edinburgh

June 18, 2023June 19, 2023 / rugreen4u4632 / 2 Comments

Joined to with Sadira, Cora and Helena today

Deliriously jet lagged and wandering the streets of Edinburgh!

We met up with Helena at the airport. We didn’t realize that there were 2 international terminals and the anticipated reunion was even more climatic. Since our flight was delayed our fish and chips lunch happened after 2 pm.

Traipsing through the royal mile in the old town.

The castle is pretty much visible throughout the old town. Edinburg is absolutely beautiful.

Apparently touching this statue’s feet is good luck.

We also found the beautiful park that used to be a lake until it was drained in the 1700s. Then we grabbed a beer and met up with a bridal party who apparently are going to name their first born after Cora. We recommended some absolute tunes and the mother of the bride did a wee bit of Scottish translation for us.

Trying to upload bag pipe rock music on the street.

Another day, Goodyear

March 5, 2023March 5, 2023 / rugreen4u4632 / Leave a comment

Today we set out towards Estrella regional park. It didn’t disappoint. The wildflowers were amazing, and the dessert landscape is beautiful this time of year. These two old ladies kept jumping into my pictures.

After a great dessert hike we headed to the baseball game. The ball park is quite scenic and we found a shady spot to watch the guardians. It would have been more fun if Alaska had gone in or if the guardians had won, but… It was it was a great way to spend my Sunday afternoon.

Yeah then we took Alaska to watch the sunset. Mission accomplished.

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Phinally Phoenix

Featured / rugreen4u4632 / 3 Comments

It was a rocky start to a weekend trip. Our 8pm Thursday night on frontier was delayed until it was cancelled after 11pm. After standing in line with angry passengers (with little hope of rebooking), we gave up and decided to go home. We back tracked the airport, shuttle, car and then drove back to Jenna’s for a brief sleep with little hope of returning…until we decided our sunk cost was lost and we might as well try to get an experience.

We got the 430 pm flight on Delta. We were hopeful about a 2 pm possibility until two platinum skymiles members bumped us. Then, our plane had mechanical problems and more mechanical problems and some weather. After a deplane experience, I began to think we shouldn’t go and was on hold with Delta about a refund when they let us reboard.

Woke up today and got busy making memories on Phoenix.

I’m going to share some pictures to prove it.

Sisters with too much sun and wind.

We left papago and went to South mountain park and preserve and hiked the pima canyon trailhead.

Then we picked up Alaska and went to a folk music festival and had dinner before going to a sunset. We didn’t see cocaine bear… Maybe next time Fiona?

Peaks of otter (poo)

June 20, 2022June 20, 2022 / rugreen4u4632 / Leave a comment

Hiked to the top of flat top mountain before heading home. We had not eaten bfast, but just started hiking and never stopped. It was a beautiful trail with big squeaky poplar trees.

I’m so luck to spend father’s day with my bff on the parkway. I needed that. Til next time.

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Rocky knob to peaks of otter

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This section of the blue ridge parkway is quite beautiful. You either have rolling hills in Virginia or you ride the ridgeline with mountains and valleys on either side. There is a road closure around Roanoke for 30 minutes, but we wanted to run into town anyway so it wasn’t a big deal.

We asked the ranger for a recommendation at peaks of otter and wow, was this a fabulous hike. Sharp top mountain (which we promptly started calling shart stop mountain). We added on buzzard Rock which was well worth the extra 600 feet.

Stone work at shart stop.

Parkway passing time

June 17, 2022June 17, 2022 / rugreen4u4632 / 2 Comments

Our first weekend as empty nesters, so we headed up on the parkway for a long weekend. First night we stopped at Crabtree falls, (formerly known as Crabtree Meadows). The only other time we attempted to stay there, a lightning storm scared us of. Last night we had smooth weather and took a nice morning hike to the falls.

We also stopped by the blue ridge music center. They have daily music 12 to 4 every day but we missed the Friday open music jam. I always forget it’s up there.

Heading out, we encountered a downed tree across the road. After taking this picture, I went to help. 10 of us tried to move this locust with no luck and I wish I had that picture. A biker left and circled back with his truck and chainsaw and cut it out of the road before our detour put us right back where we started.